Environmental management

The department's operations impact most significantly on the human environment as each year, the department assists almost 259,600 Queenslanders experiencing some form of housing need.

On a smaller scale, impacts on the physical environment relate to the designs and products used in the social housing portfolio, while impacts on the environment are minimised through policies and procedures to reduce waste, conserve natural resources (such as water), and to prevent pollution.

The Department of Housing has an environmental management system based on the international environmental management standard (AS/NZS ISO 14001:2004). The environmental standard provides benchmarks for a management approach on environmental risk.

The department maintains certification to the Environmental Management System Standard which publicly demonstrates its commitment to providing environmentally sensitive, quality services to clients.

The department approaches ecological sustainability by:

• integrating the principles of sound environmental management into the department's policies and procedures. This ensures that all services to the department's clients reflect care for the environment and contribute to ecologically sustainable development within Queensland, and
• being cognisant of the impact of the department's policies, activities, products and services on the physical environment and reducing any negative environmental impacts arising from the performance of departmental activities.

The department's environmental management policy and system have positioned the department well for implementing initiatives aligned with Queensland's Climate Change Strategy, ClimateSmart 2050. The department has:

• established environmental objectives and targets for waste minimisation, energy and water conservation and conservation of natural resources which are monitored and reported on a regular basis, and
• provided 50% of funding required for a solar water heating trial in social housing as part of the Government Energy Management Strategy for energy saving in Government-owned buildings.

The department is committed to the identification and minimisation of current and predicted types and amounts of waste, water and energy usage, and has implemented a Waste Reduction Strategic Plan as a key element of its overall environmental management system.

The department aims to minimise waste by applying the Waste Reduction Strategic Plan's waste management hierarchy of avoidance, reuse, recycling, energy, recovery from waste and disposal to six key areas of waste, being:

• water,
• energy,
• motor vehicles,
• office equipment and consumables,
• capital works including construction, maintenance and demolition, and
• municipal solid waste.

Water

Since the introduction of Level 5 Water Restrictions in April 2007, the department has increased its effort to assist social housing tenants in minimising water consumption through water conservation awareness and the installation of water-efficient devices across the department's portfolio.

During 2007-08:

• water-efficient shower roses and water flow restrictors were installed to 10,941 dwellings, and dual flush toilet cisterns were installed to 9,093 dwellings in South East Queensland, at a cost of $20 million,
• water sub-meters were installed in over 1,000 existing multi-unit accommodation dwellings,
• rainwater tanks were installed in new construction of department-owned dwellings as per local council and Queensland Development Code requirements, and
• a Water Efficiency program was developed to meet Queensland Water Commission restriction requirements and Residential Tenancies Authority water efficiency requirements for residential sites.

Water conservation is promoted to social housing tenants at the start of new tenancies, at annual property inspections, through tenant newsletters and information fact sheets.

Social housing tenants using over 800 litres of water each per day within the South East Queensland regions were targeted with information on water conservation and properties were checked for water leaks. In addition, tenants in 142 detached houses in South East Queensland consuming more than 2,000 litres per day had water-efficient devices installed where required. This resulted in almost half of these households reducing their daily water consumption.

The effect of the Department of Housing's water saving initiatives is demonstrated by the reduction in consumption. For example, in the Brisbane City Council area, the number of detached, social housing dwelling where water use was in excess of 800 litres per day has decreased from 1,973 to 1,098 in the past 12 months, which equates to a reduction of 44% of households or 83.8 mega litres of water.

Energy

The Department of Housing is committed to the Queensland Government's strategies Environmental Protection (Waste Management) Policy 2000 and ClimateSmart 2050 which aim to reduce the Government's carbon footprint. Six gases have been identified under the Kyoto Protocol as the main gases that need to be accounted for being carbon dioxide, hydrofluorocarbons, methane, nitrous oxides, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride. As part of standard emission accounting practices these gases are reported as carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (CO ₂ -e).

The Queensland Government is developing whole-of-Government systems to standardise reporting on carbon emissions (measured in CO ₂ equivalents). The basis for this reporting is consistent with national and international standards including definitions outlined in the AS Standard ISO 14064 and the Australian Government's National Greenhouse Accounts Factors workbook, as detailed below:

Scope 1

Emissions that occur from sources that are owned or controlled by the company (e.g. emissions from departmental controlled vehicles, diesel generators, gas boilers etc).

Scope 2

Emissions are classed as indirect emissions solely from the generation and consumption of purchased electricity or steam or heating/cooling. Scope 2 emissions are physically produced by the burning of fuels (coal, natural gas, etc.) at the power station or facilities not controlled by the organisation.

Scope 3

Emissions are the result of actions of a company, but occur from sources not owned or controlled by the company. Their inclusion should be based on their relevance to the operations of the organisation. More broadly, Scope 3 emissions can include:

• employee business travel (in vehicles or aircraft not owned or controlled by the reporting organisation),
• employees commuting to and from work,
• extraction, production and transport of purchased fuels consumed,
• extraction, production and transport of other purchased materials or goods,
• generation of electricity that is consumed in a transport and delivery system (reported by end user),
• out-sourced activities, and
• transportation of products, materials and waste.

In 2007-08, all Queensland Government agencies are reporting on the carbon emissions from:

• fuels used by vehicles,
• purchased electricity, and
• domestic air travel on commercial airlines.

The Queensland Government is committed to continuing to improve data collection methods and reporting carbon emissions in line with national and international standards. While the best available data has been used, in some instances estimates have been reported due to the limitation of data collection systems, for example in Government-owned buildings where there are multiple tenants and the electricity usage cannot be attributed to a single agency, the Department of Public Works calculates the electricity usage by tenanted agencies based on the m ² leased.

The following table outlines the Department of Housing's carbon emissions during 2007-08.

Scope	Category	Notes	Carbon emissions (Tonnes of CO 2 )
Scope 1	QFleet vehicles	1	535
	Purchased electricity for major workplaces		611
	Government-owned premises	2a	2316.13
Scope 2	Premises leased from the private sector	2b	3713.46
	Domestic air travel on commercial airlines	3	265
	International travel on commercial airlines	4	2
Scope 3	Domestic travel using Avis rental cars	5	15

Notes:

1. The 2007-08 vehicle CO ₂ emissions figure represents the estimated cumulative emissions for the period 1 July 2007 to 30 June 2008. It takes into account progressive changes in the size and composition of the fleet during the 12 months, including vehicle replacement. The figure is derived for each vehicle leased from QFleet using:

• the lease package details (time and kilometres)
• CO ₂ emissions data from testing in accordance with Australian Design Rules for emissions and fuel consumption labelling. Data provided by QFleet reflects CO ₂ emissions and not CO ₂ equivalent. These calculations also exclude any secondary or indirect emissions.

2a. Electricity Government-owned premises: These figures are based on actuals from current available records of electricity accounts received by the Department of Public Works, applicable for 2007-08. All electricity consumption has been converted to carbon emissions using a combined Scope 2 and Scope 3 conversion factor of 1. 04 kg CO ₂ -e/kWh as recommended in the National Greenhouse Accounts (NGA) Factors workbook dated January 2008. Electricity consumption information relates to all building/non-building electricity use where an electricity account has been received by a department directly from an electricity retailer or building owner.

2b. Electricity—Premises leased from the private sector: These figures are based on actuals from current available records of electricity accounts received by the Department of Public Works, applicable for 2007-08. On full year leases, where full year records were not available, data has been apportioned/extrapolated to provide an estimate of full year usage. Where leases are less than 12 months old the data relates to the actual period the lease was in place.

Based on historical data, tenant energy consumption equates to approximately 55% of total building energy use. The remaining 45% used to air condition the building and light the common areas of a building forms part of the carbon emissions for individual tenants. This 45% has been added to known electricity consumption for private sector leased accommodation.

3. Air travel includes all recorded air travel booked under arrangements managed by the Queensland Government Chief Procurement Office for:

• international travel on all airlines
• domestic air travel on both the mainline ‘trunk' carriers (Qantas and Virgin Blue)
• travel on smaller, regional carriers 2007-08.

This includes air travel booked either directly with an airline, through the Queensland Government appointed Travel Management Companies Qantas Business Travel and Hogg Robinson Group or through the Queensland Government's Travel Management System and bookings made directly with Jetstar or MacAir using a Queensland Government account. It also includes other bookings reported to the Queensland Government Chief Procurement Office. This data is primarily for bookings made by Queensland Health on Qantas.com and data received from the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Department of Infrastructure and Planning and Department of Tourism, Regional Development and Industry for booking made through American Express as their Travel Management Company which is not managed by Queensland Government Chief Procurement Office.

4. The Queensland Government Chief Procurement Office calculates the number of passengers per sector for domestic (Qantas, Qantaslink, Jetstar and Virgin Blue) for the period 10 December 2007 to 30 June 2008. This information is then passed on to the respective airline for calculation of carbon emissions (Qantas receives and calculates for Qantas, Qantaslink and Jetstar). They all have accredited calculation methodologies and the Department of Climate Change approved offset schemes.

For regional and international air travel and domestic air travel, as defined above, for the period 1 July 2007 to 9 December 2007, the following methodology is used:

From data provided by each airline, agency or travel management company Queensland Government Chief Procurement Office calculates the kilometres flown. The kilometre figure is divided by 100 and multiplied by an industry average number of litres of fuel burnt per pax per 100 kilometres. The factor of five for regional, international and domestic is used. These figures were suggested during discussions with Australian Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. The Queensland Government Chief Procurement Office tested the formula against current airline calculations and found the results were within a reasonably acceptable variance. The formula is (((Kilometres /100)*Average number of litres of fuel burnt per pax per 100 Km's)*factor to convert litres of fuel to kilometres of fuel)* factor to convert kilometres of fuel to kilometres of CO ₂ ).

5. The hire car vehicle emissions show only emissions for Avis vehicles booked under Standing Offer Arrangement QP681 managed by the Queensland Government Chief Procurement Office. Avis is the major supplier under this arrangement. It supplies emission figures based on the Green Vehicle Guide published by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. Its emission calculation scheme for carbon will be accredited for their offset scheme. Vehicle use linked to other suppliers is not available.

Motor vehicles

The department has implemented its ClimateSmart Fleet Management plan which outlines the strategic processes by which the department manages its motor vehicle fleet to successfully meet the whole-of-Government greenhouse gas emission reduction targets of:

• 15% by 31 December 2012,
• 25% by 2012, and
• 50% by 2017, when compared with 30 June 2007 levels.

The department is progressing well to meet these targets and has reduced its overall fleet size every year since 2004-05. The department has also continued to restructure its fleet type with lower-emission vehicles to improve the fleet environmental profile.

The following table outlines the Department of Housing's fleet profile during 2007-08.

Motor vehicles	2005–06	2006–07	2007–08
Number of fleet vehicles at 30 June	149	147	146
Number of six cylinder vehicles at 30 June	66	57	40
Petrol purchased (litres)	225,387	211,224	195,589
Ethanol petrol purchased (litres)	31,681	39,292	53,903
Diesel purchased (litres)	11,953	9,569	12,482

Office equipment and consumables

The department encourages environmentally sensitive office management practices involving avoidance, reusing and recycling in all office consumables and fit-outs. This includes minimising waste paper by avoiding printing where possible, setting all photocopier defaults to the double-sided option, recovering and reusing office material where possible, and recycling paper and photocopier cartridges in preference to disposing in landfill. Computers, printers and photocopiers are sold in the second-hand market for reuse.

The department's Agency Purchasing Procedures were developed in accordance with the Queensland Government's Better Purchasing Guide on Environmentally Friendly Purchasing. In accordance with the department's Agency Purchasing Procedures, all suppliers must submit an environmental management plan or strategy as part of their response to departmental offers for the supply of office equipment and consumables.

Waste reduction plans across the department have resulted in a decline in the amount of paper purchased by the department in 2007-08, as evidenced by the following table:

Paper usage	2005–06	2006–07	2007–08
Reams of paper purchased	21,082	22,410	22,089